|
|
April 2004
Contents:
Reflections
on Current Labor Applications of Catholic Social Thought
From
the NACST President: Situational Social Justice,by
Rita Schwartz
Editorial:
Catholic
Teachers & Unions - Challenging Times,by
Chris Ehrmann
Catholic School Teachers:
Why Unionize?
Catholic School Teachers: How Can We Unionize?
The National Value of
Catholic Schools
One Person's
Opinion: Archdiocese must find money for teachers
Previous Issues
NACST 2004 Convention/Conference
St. Louis, MO October
8 - 10, 2004
|
Reflections
on Current Labor Applications of Catholic Social Thought
by David L. Gregory, keynote
speaker at the NACST 2003 Convention
excerpts from a paper submitted
to the Villanova Journal of Catholic Social Thought Symposium - October
2003
To obtain information about published articles
and Catholic labor theory contact gregoryd@stjohns.edu.
Church financial resources are going to be
severely strained for the foreseeable future by the financial liability
caused by clergy sex crimes. Church employees have been laid off
and offices, parishes, and schools closed.
Bishops will increasingly assert that they
have no resources to provide improvements in wages and benefits to
faculty of the Catholic schools. Indeed, the bishops will argue for
ever-more austerity, in the face of closing schools and laid off former
employees.
Some bishops will probably violate the National
Labor Relations Act, by refusing to bargain with the faculty unions on
a diocese-wide basis and by unilaterally insisting that each parish control
its own school's labor relations. If the diocese has historically recognized
and bargained with the faculty union on a diocesan basis, it would be ...
unfair labor practice ... for the bishop to unilaterally disavow that arrangement
in favor of school-by-school, parish-by-parish, decentralized bargaining
with a multiplicity of fractured teachers' union bargaining units.
This would obviously undermine the union.
Consequently, Catholic school employers and
employees face especially challenging times for the continuing effectuation
of CST [Catholic Social Thought] in the Church's internal labor relations.
While Catholic school teaching is undoubtedly
vocational in large measure, and while the teachers are often among the
Church's best and most effective vocation directors for their students,
the teachers' service should not be mistaken by the Church employer as
tantamount to a secular vow of poverty.
CST, fundamentally, can inspire and revivify
communities, and that is the central dynamic largely missing in the institutional
Church today in the United States, perhaps unable to recognize the great
need and desire of people to feel connected to their neighbors, co-workers,
communities, and families.
Organizing workers is one important aspect
of that dynamic. Improving the lives of the working poor, through,
for example, living wage initiatives, in addition to supporting unionization,
is another component.
Internally, the Church must practice the CST
it preaches, in its labor relations with Catholic school teachers...
For the Church preaching fairness and equity,
it must do equity. |
Top of Page
| From
the NACST President: SITUATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE
This school year, I have
done quite a bit of traveling and have sent and received a large number
of e-mails and calls, mainly to and from St. Louis, Missouri and Boston,
Massachusetts. The main issue in both places has been the complete
and utter failure of both Archdioceses to follow the social justice teachings
of the Catholic Church.
Let's first take a look
at Boston, where the NCEA Convention is taking place this April.
Boston, the home of the Boston Archdiocesan Teachers Association, which
has represented the high school lay teachers for thirty years and represented
them well. The master contract covering the eight Archdiocesan high
schools is set to expire in August. When BATA seeks to open negotiations
for a new Agreement, it is told that the schools are going to become independent
in September of 2004. It might look that way to the Archdiocesan
officials, but to the rest of the world everything they read and hear is
pointing to Archdiocesan business as usual.
The BATA leadership
has been unable to open negotiations with the Archdiocese. It has
also been ignored by the individual schools that are supposedly going independent.
These same schools have passed on information during faculty meetings
that the Archdiocese will still be running the show and BATA will no longer
be recognized as the teachers' bargaining representative. Needless
to say, you will not find the approval of such "union busting" in Canon
Law, papal encyclicals or U.S. Bishops' Pastorals, but that is what is
becoming Archdiocesan policy in Boston.
Unfortunately, it will
probably be necessary for the Boston Archdiocesan Teachers Association
to file grievances in order to protect the teachers and the contract.
BATA may also be forced to initiate court action to keep the provisions
of their contract from being torn apart and the teachings of the Church
from being turned upside down.
Next stop, St. Louis,
where there has been an ongoing campaign by the Association of Catholic
Elementary Educators to bring collective bargaining to elementary teachers
in the Archdiocese. Since August, ACEE, under the leadership of President
Mary Chubb, has been contacting pastors and informing them that their teachers
want to be represented by a teacher association and they want to negotiate
a contract. Thus far, pastors have said they know what is best for
their teachers and that is the diocesan controlled Compensation Committee
which is asked for salary input only. Job security, a grievance process
and working conditions which the Vicar for Education states "are best resolved
at the local parish school level," are not addressed at all.
In a December 19, 2003
Memo and attached question and answer sheet from Vicar for Education, Bishop
Bob Hermann, all pastors, principals and teachers are told that "The Archdiocese
will not recognize formally any intermediary organization to participate
in this process and it will not enter into a collective bargaining agrement
with a union or other organization representing teachers." They are
then told that it is strongly recommended that parishes not recognize the
union or bargain separately either. "Every pastor should know beyond
a shadow of doubt that he does not have any moral obligation to recognize
any union for collective bargaining purposes..."
How do Bishop Hermann's
words in St. Louis compare with the U.S. Bishops' pronouncements from their
Pastoral, Economic Justice for All: Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S.
Economy?
"All Church institutions must also fully
recognize the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively
within the institution through whatever organization they freely choose,"
"All the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic
endeavor apply to the church and its agencies and institutions; indeed,
the church should be exemplary."
It would seem that the
Archdioceses of Boston and St. Louis are engaged in a classic game of "situational
social justice." Does anyone see a problem here? |
Top of Page
| Editorial:
Catholic Teachers & Unions - Challenging Times
When teachers organize for purposes of collective bargaining we put
into practice the labor rinciples extolled in Catholic social justice teaching.
As Dr. Gregory points out, and as NACST President Rita Schwartz reports,
Church administrators are on the verge of turning their backs on the significant
labor teaching of the Church.
Actions taken by school administrators to weaken or destroy teacher
unions are a challenge to teachers and the Church's social justice doctrine
itself.
Lay teachers make up 94% of U.S. Catholic elementary and secondary school
faculties.
According to Church teaching every one of the 163,004 Catholic school
teachers has the right to unionize, to choose our own collective bargaining
agent.
How will teachers stand up to the current challenges of organizing?
Will we commit ourselves to implement Church teaching?
NACST encourages all Catholic school teachers to organize, to implement
the Church's teaching as we face the challenges of the present time. |
Top of Page
| Catholic School Teachers:
Why Unionize?
keep good teachers in Catholic schools by:
• putting the Church's labor teaching
into practice
• having a voice in working conditions,
salaries, and benefits
• fairly resolving legitimate disputes
• treating teachers with respect &
professionalism
Catholic School Teachers: How Can We Unionize?
• by talking to your colleagues at school
• by becoming informed of locals in
your area
• by contacting
a NACST affiliate through this link
• by contacting NACST:
Rita Schwartz, President
NACST
Suite 903
1700 Sansom St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
phone: (800) 99NACST
email: nacst.nacst@verizon.net
|
Top of Page
The
National Value of Catholic Schools
information excerpted from United States Catholic
Elementary and Secondary Schools:2002-2003, published by the NCEA - complete
information is available at www.usccb.org/education
Number of schools - elementary 6,785 - secondary 1,215 - Total
8,000
enrollment - elementary 1,906,870 - secondary 646,407 - Total
2,553,277
full-time faculty - elementary 112,884 - secondary 50,120 - Total
163,004
Lay teachers make up 94.4% of the full-time faculties
Average Cost per pupil: public elementary $7,524 - Catholic elementary
$3,505
public secondary $7,524
- Catholic secondary $5,571
Based on public school per pupil cost, Catholic
schools provide more than
$19.5 billion in savings to the nation.
average tuition: Catholic elementary - $2,178 Catholic
secondary - $4,289 |
Top of Page
One
Person's Opinion: Archdiocese must find money for teachers
a letter posted to philly.com September 4, 2003
as the Association of Catholic Teachers in Philadelphia began a two-week
strike
As a Catholic, I am saddened by the plight of the teachers and
appalled at the seemingly callous attitude of the archdiocese. The
teachers deserve a just wage. The sad fact is that what they are
asking does not even constitute a just wage, yet they are being asked to
take less. Why? The archdiocese cites increased costs and lack
of funds. I would like to see numbers to back up that claim.
We have an annual archdiocesan budget of about $330 million. Surely
there are items in that budget less important than the education of our
children.
However, in the unlikely event that the needed funds cannot be
found in the budget, there should be no hesitation to institute a special
collection to fund the increase. We do so routinely for less-important
causes. Justice demands that the archdiocese find a solution rather
than an excuse.
F.W. Pfluger |
Top of Page
Previous Issues
December 2003
September 2003
June 2003
April 2003
December 2002
September
2002
June 2002
April 2002
Decembet 2001
September
2001
April 2001
February 2001
December 2000
September 2000
April 2000
September 1999
December 1999
Newsworthy
is a publication of the National Association of Catholic School Teachers.
Direct
comments, inquiries to: Chris Ehrmann, NACST, Suite 903, 1700 Sansom St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19103 email nacst.nacst@verizon.net. |
Back
to Main | Newsletter | Bulletin
Board | Affiliate Listing
Executive
Committee | Legal Defense
Fund
|
